politics 3 - The Latremie Post

Here is what it would take for me to join a No Kings rally (Opinion)

To all those who wrote me personally or sent a letter to the editor about my October 19th column, I’m glad you attended the No Kings rally. You’re right; the protest did succeed in providing participants a sense of community and a platform to voice concerns about Trump’s abuse of power.

The flawed optics, however, obscured the protest’s vital message and hardened the hearts of Trump supporters as I feared it would. In the future, protests against Trump’s unconstitutional actions must do more than simply amplify voices of resistance; they must ensure those voices are actually heard.

When I talk with people who ardently disagree with me, I do not try to make them see I am right. Rather, I aim to move them from “you’re wrong, Kafer” to “that’s reasonable. I can see why you feel that way.” This is a considerable step given that nobody wants to change his or her mind.

Reaching plausibility, the first step in persuasion, requires credibility and consistency. Thus, the next rally must present a more consistent, credible message to be heard beyond those who already agree.

### First, fix the signs.

Protest signs I saw included messages such as:
– “You ban books. You ban drag, yet kids are still in body bags,”
– “Defund Israel,”
– “Putin’s Puppet,”
– “Tax the Rich,”
– “Color is not a crime,” and
– “RFK’s brainworms died of starvation.”

There were also various flags—blue and pink, rainbow, Ukrainian, etc. All of this, and the costumes, made the protests appear to be catch-all leftist rallies rather than a unified movement against abuse of power.

Waving signs that read “Save due process,” “Protect the constitution,” “The 10th Amendment matters,” and “I didn’t support Biden’s abuses either” lack flair but they would be more likely to make Trump supporters question Trump’s abuses than a hodgepodge of off-message partisan policy preferences or over-the-top comparisons with mass-murdering dictators.

Signs reading “German soldiers were also just following orders!!!,” “Not my dictator,” and “No Nazis” are ridiculous. Remember, fear is a potent but risky tactic in persuasion. Too little has no impact, but too much is likely to evoke disbelief or fatalistic inaction. Nazi signs generate eye rolls, not credibility.

And while there is truth to the assertion that Trump behaves more like a monarch than a constitutionally-restrained elected official, the slogan “No Kings” evokes derision. Kings are not elected; Trump was. Kings don’t generally tolerate protests; they arrest protesters. There’s a reason there are few political marches in Brunei, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, or Eswatini, where royalty holds power.

### Second, the next rally must emphasize bipartisanship.

Don’t list dozens of leftist organizations on the website or on flyers because it only furthers the lie that protests were dominated by the far-left and protesters were paid for their participation. Organizers were paid, as they are for every large-scale event undertaken by the right or left, but participants were unpaid volunteers.

Any website or flyer should focus on volunteers, not those working on logistics.

### Lastly, save the costumes for Halloween.

While there were comparatively few frogs, unicorns, and dinosaurs in the crowd, they were the most noticeable participants. Perhaps silly costumes successfully combated false narratives about threatening, angry protesters as intended, but they also detracted from the seriousness of the message.

Did the guys dressed as Founding Fathers at Tea Party rallies during the Obama presidency make you more or less open to their message about the size and scope of the federal government? One of the reasons the 60s Civil Rights marches were so successful is that ambivalent Americans saw men and women in ties and dresses.

In the future, remember any strangely dressed person in the crowd will end up on camera and appear representative of the whole. Look like the people you want to influence.

Next time, if the message is more consistent and the messenger more credible, the protest will do more to multiply the number of concerned Americans rather than further divide.

I honked in solidarity as I drove by the Littleton No Kings rally. Perhaps next time, I will join.

—

*Kirsta Kafer is a Sunday Denver Post columnist. Sign up for Sound Off to get a weekly roundup of our columns, editorials and more.*
https://www.denverpost.com/2025/11/03/no-kings-protests-trump-colorado-plausible/

49ers HC Kyle Shanahan Makes Admission on Brock Purdy’s Injury

The San Francisco 49ers have shown they can win without quarterback Brock Purdy, which is reassuring given that he may not be fully healthy anytime soon.

Niners coach Kyle Shanahan announced that Purdy might not be at full strength for the remainder of this season. Purdy missed his fifth straight game during the 49ers’ 34-24 victory over the New York Giants. The team currently stands at 6-3 overall and 5-2 with Mac Jones starting in Purdy’s absence due to a lingering toe injury.

Purdy has missed two games earlier in the season because of this toe ailment, along with an injury to his non-throwing shoulder. Despite this, reports suggest he could be well enough to return for San Francisco’s upcoming showdown on Sunday against their rivals, the Los Angeles Rams, at Levi’s Stadium.

### Brock Purdy May Not Be 100 Percent Again This Season

No player who logs significant snaps is ever truly 100 percent healthy once November rolls around, but Purdy’s condition—turf toe, medically defined as a hyperextended big toe—is especially painful when playing on artificial turf. This injury is likely to remain a concern for the 49ers throughout the rest of the season.

“Any time you’re dealing with this turf toe, it’s something that probably won’t fully go away all year,” Shanahan said after the 49ers’ win over the Giants. “Regardless of when he comes back, he’s always going to have to deal with it a little bit.”

The 49ers have played two consecutive games on turf and three of their past five games on artificial surfaces. However, that streak will end when they return home to face the Rams. Sunday’s game marks the start of a stretch featuring five straight games on grass (including four in a row), followed by their Week 14 bye and then a home game in Tennessee.

This upcoming matchup is considered conducive for Purdy’s potential return, according to Shanahan. “When you talk to people who have gone through turf toe, it’s really about when is it the best time when you have to deal with it the least,” Shanahan explained. “It’s a little bit of a tricky decision.”

### The 49ers Are Trying To Get Brock Purdy As Healthy As Possible Before He Returns

When asked about the possibility of Purdy undergoing toe surgery, Shanahan indicated that it is unlikely. Meanwhile, Mac Jones has continued to perform impressively in his pro career. The fifth-year quarterback boasts a 67.2% completion percentage, a 10-5 touchdown-to-interception ratio, and is averaging 261.7 passing yards per game. This strong performance has provided no pressing reason to rush Purdy back onto the field.

Shanahan is focused on carefully easing Purdy back into practice, conscious of not pushing the quarterback too hard given the severity of his injury. The 49ers currently hold about an 80% chance of making the playoffs, and they will want their No. 1 quarterback healthy if they hope to make a serious run at playing a Super Bowl on their home turf in February.

“I just want to make sure he gets 100 percent better, and I won’t put him out there too early,” Shanahan said. “I thought about [Purdy] as a backup or emergency [third QB], but I think the more time we give him, the better.”
https://heavy.com/sports/nfl/san-francisco-49ers/kyle-shanahan-brock-purdy-toe-injury-season/

‘Battling Between Good and Evil’: Ex-Wife of DMX on Marriage, Struggles, and the Day She Met Jesus

Tashera Draughn met Earl Simmons when she was just 11 years old. She dated him for 10 years before marrying the man who would later gain fame as rapper DMX.

During a recent conversation with CBN, Tashera shared about her marriage to the hip hop legend.

“This was always his dream. He knew that he was gifted with his talent, which I didn’t really see it for what it was until it actually, really happened. But he said, ‘This is how we going to make it out the hood,'” Tashera said.

She recalled how married life started off easily, then turned into a nightmare after DMX’s meteoric rise in the music world.

“In an industry where it is the devil’s playground, where morals and values are out the window, I watched my best friend gain the world,” she explained.

It is widely known that DMX struggled with drug addiction, which led to legal battles and multiple stints behind bars. Later in his career, the Grammy-nominated rapper, who often spoke about God, began to incorporate his love for God into his lyrics.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, DMX used social media to lead thousands in a Bible study and pray for salvation.

**MORE: Remembering Rapper DMX and His Pandemic Bible Study, Asking Followers to Receive Jesus**

“He’s the one who introduced me to Christ,” Tashera explained. “I knew that he knew he was being used for Christ. But I saw the constant fight he was battling. He was battling between good and evil.”

That evil included the pain of marital infidelity and abuse.

“To be totally transparent, I was lost,” said Tashera. “I lost myself. I lost my soul in that marriage. If it wasn’t for my oldest son saying that one day, he said, ‘If the next time I see my father and hear him abusing you verbally, I’m going to kill him.'”

Those words from 14-year-old Xavier served as a wake-up call for Tashera to take her family and leave.

“I saw the look in his eyes and I realized that if you’re not going to do it for yourself, Shera, you have to do it for your children,” Tashera said.

In 2025, while separated from her husband, Tashera, who grew up a Muslim, said she experienced a spiritual encounter that set her on a new path.

“I didn’t know Jesus the way I should have, so I was in the closet,” she explained. “Things were going really bad. It was going really left, and I cried the hardest cry. I mean, it was from my soul. It was from my spirit. I did not know what else to do. I felt warmth, a peace that I’ve never ever experienced before. And at the time, it was scary. But when I had to replay it, it was Jesus because I was crying out, ‘If You were real, You would come see me. You would show me Your love. This is not what You say You’re about.’ And that’s what I was saying in that moment, and then He came.”

***Please sign up for CBN Newsletters and download the CBN News app to ensure you keep receiving the latest news from a distinctly Christian perspective.***

The experience is just one of many Tashera shares in her latest book, *Dying to Self*, which outlines her transformative journey.

“The industry that I was birthed in is the devil’s playground, and there’s so many women and men out there that they think they know, but they have no idea. And I felt like it was time. I owed it to Jesus to let the world know that, had it not been for Him on my side, I don’t know where I would be,” Tashera said.

In 2014, Tashera and Earl divorced, and on April 9, 2021, at the age of 50, DMX died after suffering a heart attack. At his funeral, Tashera shared about the love God had for Earl and his sincere desire to serve Christ.

Today, Tashera is on a mission to share the healing and hope she has found.

“Jesus Christ is love. I mean, that’s the only way I could really fully say it, because I didn’t know what love was until I found His love, His unconditional love, the love that when I mess up, when I make mistakes, when I get distracted, He’s still sitting there.”

It is a love that has made a strong impact on Tashera and Earl’s children who experienced their own challenges growing up in the home of the late rapper. Her youngest son Sean was recently baptized after committing his life to Christ.

“Our Godly Father has picked them up and turned their lives around. And they don’t have depression anymore. They don’t cut anymore. They don’t feel abandoned anymore because of the love of Jesus Christ.”
https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/entertainment/2025/november/battling-between-good-and-evil-ex-wife-of-dmx-on-marriage-struggles-and-the-day-she-met-jesus

Newbridge firepower proves crucial vs. Dunloy

**Sean O’Learys Newbridge 1-14 Dunloy Cuchulainns 0-11**

This game was closer than the final scoreline suggests. It took determination mixed with outrageous skill for the Derry champions to advance in this Ulster senior club match at Owenbeg on Saturday.

Conleth McGrogan and Oisin Doherty produced moments of high octane, each landing late two-pointers to cushion the margin to six against a Dunloy side who were in the game in front of a large crowd of over 2,500 until the last few minutes. Factor in Callum McGrogan’s second-half goal alongside those four points, and you see that it was, in fact, three special moments which decided the outcome.

A salute to the Dunloy lads who were playing in their first-ever provincial senior football series, although many had previously played and won Ulster hurling honors with the famed Antrim club. They certainly gave it a good go, and with a brace of two-pointers on the cusp of the interval, they went in two points to the good, 0-8 to 0-6.

That was with the advantage of the elements, and you could see how Newbridge managed their efforts in the first half, where holding possession rather than going all-out for scores was a big part of their game plan.

Keelan Molloy pushed the Antrim lead out to three (0-9 to 0-6) on the resumption, which Mark McGrogan negated with a point of his own. However, when Ryan McGarry landed Dunloy’s 10th score, there was a sense of a real upset on the cards. Questions were asked of Newbridge, and McGrogan’s goal went a long way toward answering what mettle the Derry boys had for the occasion.

It boiled down to an arm-wrestle for control, and when Sean Elliot levelled once more for the underdog, anything seemed possible. Dunloy lived dangerously when a pass out of defense was intercepted and should have led to a goal but was spilled at the last second.

There was no need for Derry fans to worry as almost immediately, McGrogan landed his monster two-pointer, something that was bettered in execution by Oisin Doherty’s, which finally put a dagger into the heart of the Saffron challenge.

Newbridge now go forward to a quarter-final clash with Armagh kingpins Madden.

**Newbridge:** N Rocks; S McAteer, S McGrogan, M McGrogan (0-1); C McGrogan (1-0), C McGrogan, P McGrogan; C Doherty (0-2), C McGrogan (0-2, 1tp); E Young, M Doherty (0-1), C McAteer; P McMullan, S Young (0-2), O Doherty (0-6, 1tp, 0-4f)
Subs: J Diamond for Young (59).

**Dunloy:** C McMahon; R Cunning, A Crawford, C Kinsella; A McCarry, R McGarry (0-1), T McFerran; E McFerran, D Smith (0-2, 1tp); E O’Neill (0-1), S Elliot (0-1), C Cunning; L McFerran, K Molloy (0-6, 1tp, 0-2f), N Elliot
Subs: K McQuillan for L McFerran (59), J Scall for N Elliot (59).
Referee: K Eannetta.

—

**Ballygunner 0-18 Na Piarsaigh 0-15**

As early provincial rounds go, this trip by Waterford champions Ballygunner to Limerick was about as tough an assignment as possible. It called for guts, determination, and no little skill to beat a Na Piarsaigh outfit at the Gaelic Grounds, yet that is precisely what the Deise men achieved in a pulsating and closely fought game on Sunday afternoon.

It wasn’t top-class hurling or eye-catching stuff, more of an honest-to-goodness slog that asked the age-old question: which team wants it more?

And so it came to pass that for the seventh year in succession, the men in red and black were able to eliminate the Limerick champions. Having won four of the last four ties in Limerick, this says much about the inner fortitude of the Waterford men.

Almost 3,000 fans got no goals to cheer home, and only once when the home side finally got their noses in front eight minutes from time did the loudest cheer of the day ring out. That only served to give the Gunners more reason to dig deep, which they did by maintaining a defensive phalanx that thwarted opposition efforts to penetrate.

The success of this formula can be gauged by their counter-attacking prowess, which saw them score five of the last six points to emerge victorious by three points.

**Ballygunner:** S O’Keeffe; I Kenny, T Foley, A O’Neill; H Ruddle (0-03), Philip Mahony, R Power; C Sheahan, P Leavey; P Hogan (0-01), M Mahony (0-02), D Hutchinson (0-05, 3f, 1 65); M Hartley (0-02), P Fitzgerald (0-04, 1 65), K Mahony
Subs: C Power for Sheahan (49′), C Tobin (0-01) for Hartley (53′).

**Na Piarsaigh:** S Dowling; J Boylan, V Harrington, R Lynch (0-03, 3f); E McEvoy, M Casey, M Foley; J J Carey, T Grimes (0-01); W Henn, P Casey (0-03), D Dempsey; K Downes (0-06, 4f, 1 65), C Boylan (0-01), A Breen (0-01)
Subs: K Dempsey for Henn (41′), J Finn for Foley (43′), D Lynch for Breen (46′), E Brosnan for Grimes (54′), W Kearns for Carey (59′).
Referee: N Malone.

—

**Loughrea 1-15 St Thomas’ 1-14**

Galway is one of the harder county championships to retain, so hats off to Loughrea for making it back-to-back Galway senior hurling championship titles following a one-point win over a gallant St Thomas’ at Pearse Stadium on Saturday.

Retaining the Tom Callinan Cup for the first time in their history and winning it for the fourth time overall, the holders now have a chance to see how they progress in the All Ireland club series.

They were made to fight all the way in this encounter. After turning over five points to the good on 0-11 to 0-6—with Conor Cooney hitting four of the losers’ total and finishing with 1-10 in total—they had to fight might and main to keep their heads in front when it mattered most at the end of the game.

Only two ahead as the game drifted towards the red zone, a smashing strike by Darren Shaughnessy seemed to give them enough room to ease home, but a free by Cooney in injury time which raised a green flag had the crowd on tenterhooks before the holders held on to claim victory at the final whistle.

**Loughrea:** G Loughnane; P Hoban, J Coen, K Hanrahan; B Keary, S Morgan (0-2f), J Mooney; I Hanrahan (0-1), C Killeen; C Killeen, T Killeen (0-3, 0-2f), J Ryan; A Burns (0-5), D Shaughnessy (1-2), V Morgan (0-2)
Subs: M McManus for Burns (18-20), McManus for Ryan (57), S Sweeney for I Hanrahan (62), A Kelly for Killeen (64), N Keary for Burns (65).

**St Thomas’:** G Kelly; C Mahony, F Burke, J Headd; E Duggan, S Cooney, C Headd, D Burke, D McGlynn; D Burke (0-1), C Cooney (1-10, 1-9f), E Burke; E Brady, D Farrell (0-2), V Manso (0-1)
Subs: C Burke for Duggan (46), J Regan for McGlynn (46), D Finnerty for Brady (57).
Referee: L Gordon (Killimor).

—

**Monaghan’s Eugene “Nudie” Hughes Passes Away Aged 67**

It is with widespread sadness that the death was announced this week of former three-time All-Star Eugene “Nudie” Hughes at the age of 67.

Eugene was considered to be Monaghan’s greatest ever footballer and fought a hard battle against cancer for the last seven years. The Castleblayney Faughs legend showed remarkable resolve in facing the illness and thanked the huge support from family, friends, and the wider GAA community.

In 2024, Hughes was honored by the Gaelic Players Association with a Lifetime Achievement award. He was Monaghan’s first All-Star winner in 1979 and picked up two further personal accolades in 1985 and 1989. Hughes was one of the few players recognized both in defense and attack—first as a corner-back and later as a corner-forward.

His All-Star-winning years coincided with Monaghan winning the Ulster title. In 1985, Hughes was also part of the team that won the National Football League. He won a Railway Cup medal in 1984 with Ulster and two Ulster football titles with Castleblayney.

Monaghan GAA paid tribute to Eugene on Monday:

> “It is with deep and profound sadness that Monaghan GAA has learned of the passing of one of our greatest ever players, Eugene ‘Nudie’ Hughes—a true legend of Monaghan football and a three-time All-Star recipient.
> “Nudie’s contribution to our county, both on and off the field, was immense. His skill, passion, and leadership inspired generations, and his name will forever be synonymous with Monaghan’s proud footballing tradition.
> “Nudie fought his illness with immense courage and dignity, just as he played the game with heart and determination.”

—

**GAA Scorelines**

**Saturday, November 1**

– Roscommon SFC final replay
St Brigid’s 1-16 Padraig Pearses 1-12

– Leitrim SHC final
Cluainin Iomaint 2-10 Carrick HC 1-10

– Galway SHC final
Loughrea 1-15 St Thomas’ 1-14

– Limerick SFC semi-finals
Mungret St Pauls 0-17 Adare 1-13
Newcastle West 2-16 Fr Casey’s 0-14 (AET)

– Tipperary SFC semi-final
Clonmel Commercials 1-9 Upperchurch-Drombane 0-8

– Leinster club SFC Round 1
Portarlington (Laois) 1-12 Old Leighlin (Carlow) 0-6

– Ulster club SFC preliminary round
Sean O’Learys Newbridge (Derry) 1-14 Dunloy Cuchulainns (Antrim) 0-11

**Sunday, November 2**

– Waterford SFC final
Rathgormack 1-12 The Nire 1-10

– Wexford SFC final
Castletown Liam Mellows 0-14 Shelmaliers 1-7

– Leinster club SFC Round 1
Summerhill (Meath) 2-22 Killoe Young Emmets (Longford) 1-16
Athy (Kildare) 3-16 Baltinglass (Wicklow) 0

—

*End of Report*
https://www.irishecho.com/2025/11/newbridge-firepower-proves-crucial

STAT+: Is Canada about to lose measles-elimination status?

Get your daily dose of health and medicine every weekday with STAT’s free newsletter, Morning Rounds. Sign up here to stay informed.

On Friday, two federal judges ruled that the Trump administration must continue to fund SNAP throughout the government shutdown. This decision ensures that benefits will not be interrupted during this challenging time.

Do you receive SNAP benefits? How are you holding up a few days into November? We’d love to hear from you. Reach out at snapeditor@statnews.com.

https://www.statnews.com/2025/11/03/health-news-measles-in-canada-fda-tidmarsh-leave/?utm_campaign=rss

Powerful 6.3 quake kills at least 20 in Afghanistan, hundreds injured

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https://triblive.com/news/world/powerful-6-3-quake-kills-at-least-20-in-afghanistan-hundreds-injured/

Vitalik Buterin Calls for “Open Source and Verifiable” Self-Driving Cars

On November 2, Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin sent a short but pointed message into the tech ether: “We need open source and verifiable self-driving cars.” The tweet landed like a provocation and a challenge at once—a call for transparency in a field where code, models, and sensor streams decide life-or-death outcomes, and where opaque, proprietary stacks have so far dominated the road.

At first glance, the line reads like a principled manifesto: open source as a check against proprietary secrecy, and verifiability as a guardrail for trust and accountability. But there’s a deeper technical case folded into that phrase.

Autonomous systems are not just software; they are sensor networks, machine-learning pipelines, communications infrastructures, and legal constructs. Making them “verifiable” means building mechanisms to prove—to regulators, to courts, and to the public—that a vehicle was running a particular software version, that its decision-making process met a safety contract, or that a sensor reading was authentic and unaltered.

### Blockchain and Modern Cryptography: Stitching Proofs Together

Blockchain and modern cryptography offer practical ways to stitch those proofs together without turning every car into a streaming data breach.

The simplest blockchain analogy is the immutable ledger. If a vehicle publishes cryptographic hashes of critical telemetry, software manifests, or signed attestations onto a permissioned ledger, investigators can later show that the evidence they examine matches what the car itself declared at the time.

This is the idea behind several academic proposals and prototypes: fragmented ledgers for vehicle forensics, “vehicle passports” that anchor attestations off-chain while keeping proof on-chain, and permissioned blockchains that constrain who can write or read sensitive automotive records. These systems aim to preserve privacy while maintaining tamper-evidence—a vital balance when raw sensor logs from LiDAR, radar, and cameras are privacy goldmines.

### The Role of Zero-Knowledge Proofs

But verifiability at the scale required by autonomous vehicles also needs stronger, more subtle cryptography.

Zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs), including zk-SNARK constructions, let a system prove that it followed a particular safety property or that a model’s output lies within acceptable bounds—without revealing the model weights or the raw sensor data.

This capability is game-changing: regulators could require proof that the driving stack satisfied a safety predicate at a given time, and the manufacturer could provide a succinct cryptographic proof rather than dumping telemetry into the public domain.

Recent research explores ZKP-enabled frameworks for privacy-preserving verification across vehicle networks and related Internet of Vehicles (IoV) use cases.

### Beyond Forensics: Smart Contracts and Decentralized Identities

Beyond forensics and proofs, smart contracts and decentralized identities (DIDs) open other interesting avenues.

– **Smart contracts** can automate and document the lifecycle of safety-critical software updates: who signed the update, when it was pushed, which test suites it passed, and which vehicles accepted it—all recorded in a verifiable, auditable trail.

– **Decentralized Identities (DIDs)** allow vehicles, manufacturers, and roadside units to authenticate interactions without relying on a central vendor acting as a single point of control.

Together, these tools make it harder to hide a faulty update or falsify evidence after an incident. Several whitepapers and prototype frameworks show how permissioned blockchains combined with cryptographic attestations can serve exactly these functions.

### Challenges on the Road Ahead

Yet the technology road is not without its potholes.

– **Latency and throughput constraints** make it impractical to put raw sensor streams on a public blockchain. Instead, systems must balance on-chain proofs with off-chain data storage and efficient notarization.

– **Cryptographic proof generation**, especially for complex machine learning models, is computationally heavy, though ongoing ZK research is steadily lowering those costs.

– **Privacy remains thorny**: even hashed or fingerprinted telemetry can sometimes be deanonymized if combined with other datasets.

– **Governance and standards lag behind**: Who decides the safety predicates that must be provable? Which entities run the permissioned validators? How do courts treat ZK proofs versus traditional logs?

These questions are partly technical and partly social and legal.

### Openness and Verifiability: Toward Public Accountability

Buterin’s tweet matters because it reframes those debates in a single sentence: openness plus verifiability equals public accountability.

For a technology where public acceptance hinges on safety and fairness, that framing nudges companies and policymakers alike toward architectures that can be independently audited and cryptographically attested.

It also reframes competition: firms can keep proprietary model details if they can still produce compact, provable guarantees about behavior. In other words, transparency need not mean intellectual property forfeiture; it can mean verifiable safety without exposing the internals.

### The Path Forward

The next steps will be practical: pilots that demonstrate low-latency notarization of critical events, regulatory frameworks that accept cryptographic proofs as admissible evidence, interoperable standards for vehicle passports and secure update manifests, and open reference implementations that reduce the trust placed in single vendors.

The academic and engineering building blocks exist—from blockchain-anchored forensics to ZKP-backed verification; turning them into operational systems with clear legal meaning is the harder work ahead.

Vitalik’s sentence is an invitation to build, not a finished blueprint.

If self-driving cars are going to share our roads, they should also share a public language of accountability: verifiable statements about what they did and why.

Open source gives citizens and researchers the ability to interrogate systems; verifiability gives them the power to prove what actually happened. Together, they promise a safer, more auditable future for autonomy—one where trust is anchored in cryptography as much as in corporate reputation.
https://bitcoinethereumnews.com/tech/vitalik-buterin-calls-for-open-source-and-verifiable-self-driving-cars/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=vitalik-buterin-calls-for-open-source-and-verifiable-self-driving-cars

10-Minute Challenge: A Vase of Flowers

You made it in time. If you want to look a little longer, just scroll back up and press “Continue.”

There’s a story about an ancient Greek painter named Zeuxis who, in a painting contest with a rival, painted grapes so realistic that birds flew down and tried to eat them. As I looked at these grapes by Margareta Haverman at the Metropolitan Museum of Art last week, I could imagine birds breaking through the ceiling, swooping right in.

A technical analysis of the painting revealed Haverman used up to seven layers of paint on the grapes, some added while the previous layer was still wet, to achieve the effect—evidence of an artist searching for the perfect form. Everywhere your eyes look, they encounter a torrent of detail: the intricate layers of the flower petals, the blushing of the fruit, the patterns on the wings of the bugs, the shine of the water droplets, and the veins on the leaves.

Interestingly, the leaves are bluer now than they would have been in 1716 because the yellow pigment Haverman used faded over time. Even with this bluer cast, there remains a wide range of color: shocking reds, paler blues, bright whites, and deep purples.

You can picture Haverman in her studio with this setup in front of her, looking, sketching, and painting—racing against the clock before her beautiful bouquet wilts and dies. Remember, it’s 1716: she can’t take a photograph.

But that’s not possible.

“This bouquet could never exist in reality,” said Adam Eaker, assistant curator in the Department of European Paintings at the Met. “These flowers don’t bloom at the same time of year, so Haverman would have slowly pieced this work together on the basis of individual studies.”

In all, there are 30 different types of fruit and flowers, two species of butterfly, five other types of insects, and a couple of garden snails. This is one of only two surviving works by Haverman.

Little is known about her life, but we do know she learned these techniques from a highly regarded flower painter, Jan van Huysum.

Take a look at this van Huysum painting from 1715. Can you see the similarities between Haverman (left) and van Huysum (right), particularly in the tulips? Haverman learned fast. She was good. Van Huysum was jealous.

A 1751 biography of the eccentric and secretive van Huysum — who came from a family of painters and wouldn’t even let his brothers see the inside of his studio — notes that Haverman’s “prowess aroused Jan’s envy to such a degree that he longed to be rid of her.”

Female painters were rare and often needed a family connection to enter the field. (Haverman’s father helped persuade van Huysum to take her on.) Many women were relegated to still life painting because they weren’t allowed to study nude models.

Still, Haverman excelled. The same biography notes she learned “not only to copy [van Huysum’s] paintings but also to paint beautifully from life; even to the amazement of connoisseurs, who came to see her work.”

Eventually, van Huysum found a reason to drop her as his student. (It was described at the time as a “misdeed.”)

Haverman’s self-assurance is clear in the decisions she makes in this painting. Notice how the dark background causes that streak of white flowers to push even more to the fore, providing a central anchor for your eye.

Zoom in (you may need to get up close) and you can just make out her signature at the bottom, almost etched into the plinth.

“I love the confidence of her signature and the strange sculptural ornamentation of the vase, lurking in the shadows,” Mr. Eaker said. “I think the signature gives a wonderful sense both of Haverman’s confidence as an artist and her skill at crafting an illusion.”

Flower painting like this was common in the Netherlands. Even a hundred years earlier, artists like Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder were setting similarly striped tulips in arrangements against landscape backgrounds.

Around this time, in the early 1600s, so-called “tulip mania” hit the Netherlands. In the craze, the price of tulip bulbs was bid up and up—selling in one case for more than a Rembrandt painting—creating what some describe as the first financial bubble.

Eventually, the bubble burst and tulip prices came crashing down, leaving some tulip speculators bankrupt.

Tulip mania was later followed by the hyacinth mania of the 1700s. Haverman included blue and white varieties of hyacinth in our painting.

There’s a temptation to want to extract symbolism or meaning from these flowers. Maybe Haverman painted some parts of this bouquet not at their peak but in decay to remind us of the fragility of life.

“Some flowers do have symbolic meaning, but flower paintings generally weren’t meant to be ‘decoded,’” Mr. Eaker said.

In the end, the bouquet of flowers you bought from the corner store last weekend will die. This painting, with the help of art conservators, will live.

These are objects for close looking and admiration, Mr. Eaker said, “particularly on a cold gray Dutch winter’s day.”
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/11/02/upshot/ten-minute-challenge-flowers.html

‘Regretting You’ and ‘Black Phone 2’ neck-in-neck on slow Halloween box office weekend

The movie exhibition business is closing out one of its slowest Octobers in over 25 years with a sluggish Halloween weekend. Studios avoided opening any major new films with the holiday falling on a Friday. Instead, there were several re-releases, including “Back to the Future,” which is celebrating its 40th anniversary, and the Netflix phenomenon “KPop Demon Hunters.”

Even with a top 10 in which no films earned more than $10 million, there was still a bit of excitement as two studios claimed the No. 1 spot on Sunday. Universal’s horror sequel “Black Phone 2” was largely expected to top the charts in its third weekend in theaters, with the studio reporting an estimated $8 million for the weekend.

About 30 minutes later, Paramount reported that its romantic drama “Regretting You” had earned an estimated $8.1 million, which would place it in the top spot instead. Box office tracker Comscore analyzed the numbers and awarded the No. 1 title to “Regretting You.” It’s important to note that Sunday numbers are based on estimates and projections, and sometimes Monday’s actual figures tell a different story.

“Regretting You” is the latest Colleen Hoover adaptation to open in theaters, following the runaway hit “It Ends With Us.” While “Regretting You” has a running domestic total of $27.5 million, it is not expected to match its predecessor’s impressive $50 million opening weekend.

Meanwhile, in three weekends, “Black Phone 2” has grossed $61.5 million domestically and $104.7 million globally. Universal also handled the nationwide re-release of Robert Zemeckis’s “Back to the Future,” which earned $4.7 million from 2,290 theaters, enough to secure fifth place on the North American charts. The 1985 time travel classic now boasts a domestic total of $221.7 million.

Though there were plenty of HUNTR/X costumes on the streets this weekend, “KPop Demon Hunters” didn’t perform as well as it did when it played in theaters in August. That weekend, the streaming hit sold between $16 million and $20 million in movie tickets. This weekend, it’s estimated to have earned around $5 million from 2,890 screens.

Two distribution executives, speaking on condition of anonymity due to Netflix’s policy of not reporting ticket sales, shared these numbers.

Sony Pictures and Crunchyroll’s “Chainsaw Man The Movie: Reze Arc” dropped a steep 67% in its second weekend and is projected to add $6 million from 3,003 locations, bringing its total to $30.8 million.

Focus Features also launched “Bugonia” into wide release after several weeks in limited release. With an estimated $4.8 million from 2,043 theaters, it marks filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos’s best wide opening to date. The darkly comedic thriller stars Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons and is expected to be an awards season contender.

“Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere” landed in sixth place, just behind “Back to the Future,” and saw a 57% drop in its second weekend. It earned $3.8 million, putting its domestic total at $16.3 million and its global tally at $30.6 million.

“This was a truly scary weekend,” said Paul Dergarabedian, Comscore’s head of marketplace trends. “It was this imperfect storm of Halloween on a Friday and the World Series on Friday and Saturday. But the studios and theaters knew this was on the horizon and they planned for it.”

The next two weekends may bring some energy back to multiplexes with releases like “Predator: Badlands” and “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t.” However, the industry will likely have to wait until closer to Thanksgiving for a real blockbuster when “Wicked: For Good” and “Zootopia 2” enter the mix.

“This was always going to be a tough weekend. The audience was truly fragmented,” Dergarabedian added. “There are weekends where the movie theaters are the focus of attention, and those are coming.”
https://www.bostonherald.com/2025/11/02/regretting-you-and-black-phone-2-neck-in-neck-on-slow-halloween-box-office-weekend/

Are Republicans Willing to Play the Trump Card? – Liberty Nation News

President Donald Trump has called for an end to the shutdown – even if that means going “nuclear” on the filibuster. Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance has some tough words for congressional Democrats. Are Republicans willing to play the Trump card?

The shutdown has dragged on for a month, with no end in sight.

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